Girl Things
by StuckInThePast
Summary: Kate is taken hostage for the second time in two days. T but only for very discreet reference to rape. Tag for Bete Noire, Season 1.


Disclaimer: Not mine

A/N: Ok, this is my first NCIS story and it isn't amazing, but I like to think it's not bad. R&R please but be gentle. Thankyou and enjoy.

**Girl Things**

Abby somewhat hesitantly made her way into the office. "Hey, Denozo, is Kate around?"

Tony looked up. "Bathroom." He made a face. "Girl thing."

"You had to ask, huh?"

"I think she just loves to mess with me."

"Aww, Tony, you know I'd sympathise, but you just make it so _easy_."

"Thanks. Hey!"

Abby laughed, glad for the moment of uplifting before she faced her _other _fear. She had no idea how she was going to do this.

"Kate!"

Kate smiled wearily as she walked down the corridor and Abby turned to walk with her. "Hey, Abs."

"Wow, you look awful."

"Thanks."

"'Girl thing'?"

"Yes, because of course I tell Tony that sort of thing." They both laughed for a moment. "No, I just didn't get much sleep last night."

"The Iraqi, huh?"

Kate sighed. "It was awful. You can't imagine."

Abby nodded sympathetically. "Actually, I wanted to talk to you about that. I just… I'm really sorry."

"There was nothing you could have done."

"I know, but it should have been me down there. It was only a dumb dream; I should have just gotten over it."

"Hey, everyone gets those phobias. I don't blame you for being scared, Abby, okay? Mine is the dumbest you could imagine, but it was almost twenty years before I could even think about it without mentally screaming."

"Ooh, care to share?"

Kate grinned. "Gibbs."

"_Gibbs_?"

"Hey, you don't have to be at a crime scene with him when he hasn't had his morning coffee."

"Ah, Gibbs with no caffeine in his bloodstream. That's different."

"Ladies." Gibbs fell into step with them. "You talking about anything interesting?"

"No," they said simultaneously. They passed Abby's lab, and she left to get on with some bloodwork Ducky needed doing.

"Yesterday, right?"

"It was a… girl thing, Gibbs."

Abby looked up as Kate walked into her lab a few hours later and they made their way to the lunch hall.

"So, what did you tell Gibbs?"

"The old 'girl thing'."

"You really like that one, don't you?"

Kate decided not to answer, skipping straight to "You do realise it isn't actually Gibbs, right?"

"I kind of figured."

"Actually, it's…" Kate glanced around. "You can't ever tell anyone this, okay?"

"My lips are sealed."

"It's… I'm absolutely terrified of the water."

Abby paused. "Well, I didn't see that coming. I thought it was going to be clowns or something."

"I know, it's dumb, I just-" Kate cut off as Ducky passed.

"Girl thing," Abby explained at his enquiring look, quickly before he started to ramble.

"You're catching on," Kate said with a smile when Ducky was out of hearing.

"So. Hydrophobia, huh? Toughie. Still, we can work through it."

"We can?"

"Sure we can. I am a pro at working through other people's fears. We start tonight, my place at eight."

"Can't wait."

CHICKENED OUT, GONE SWIMMING.

KAITLIN

Abby read through the text message, and made her way to the place where they track calls.

"_Kaitlin_," she emphasised. "Hi, it's Abby. What's up? You don't usually "chicken out"."

"You know how I feel about this."

"Which is why we were going to beat it. Come _on_, you have to trust me on this."

"Oh, I trust _you_. It's the clowns that I don't."

"The circus I picked out is very mild on the clown work. We're working our way up slowly."

"Abby, they just freak me out, okay? I have to go if I don't want to get pulled over. See you Monday."

Abby stared at the cell. "Hinky," she said to Tony.

"Clowns?"

"Just… don't ask. Kate's coming in tomorrow to look at the North Carolina incident with Gibbs, and she knows I am, to help Ducky out with something. She doesn't chicken out. She doesn't call herself Kaitlin. She's not afraid of clowns. She always has her phone on speaker if she's driving. She doesn't get snippy at people for no real reason. And she does _not _go swimming."

"Okay, I've thrown my friends off the trail, against all my morals, and I am a very moral person. Now-"

"So moral you had an affair with a fellow officer, against regulations, while working for the President on Air Force One?"

"If you've seen my record you'll be able to add to that, so moral that I resigned out of guilt. Now I would _appreciate_ being told what exactly is happening."

"You're being kidnapped."

"I kind of figured that out," Kate said, exasperated. "I would like a bit more detail."

"You'll contact your friends."

"You have my Blackberry."

"We're going to Louisiana."

"Is that the truth?"

"Why would I lie, Kaitlin?"

"I've been taken hostage before."

"I don't lie to my captives."

"You do this a lot?"

The man in the passenger seat chuckled. "Sharp kid, aren't you."

"You have my ID card, too. Take a look at my age before you call me a kid."

"You said you've been a hostage before. Didn't you pick up from then that you should never try to aggravate your captor?"

"You didn't answer my question."

Cold metal brushed her bare throat. "Just remember, Kaitlin, who's asking the questions."

She drove on in silence for a few minutes.

"Pull over here," he said. Kate pulled up at a service station.

"Now go into the bathroom and remove your contact lenses. I'll be waiting outside."

"I won't be able to recognise you."

"I'll come to you. Now go."

Kate walked towards the bathroom.

"Kaitlin."

She turned.

"I want to see those lenses."

It _would_ be today she forgot her spares.

Kate wrote a note and handed it with a sketch to the over-friendly woman who had struck up a conversation with her. Who had a conversation in the bathroom?

The woman took the note and stared at her.

"Will you do it?" Kate asked.

"Of course, my dear. It's done. Be safe, love."

_My dear. Love_. She was _that_ kind of woman.

She left the bathroom, contacts in hand. The man who was her captor moved towards her and took her arm.

The woman in the bathroom read the note again.

"Special Agent Gibbs, my name is Alicia Penfolds. I have news of your co-worker Kaitlin Todd, and she's in danger."

Gibbs half-jumped over his boat and grabbed the phone. "This is Gibbs."

"She's in her own car with a man of medium build, about 6'3", blond hair and clean-shaven. I have a sketch here that she gave me; I can scan it into my computer and e-mail it to you if you give me your address."

"Where is she?"

"She just left a service station near Chicago. She was told she was headed for Louisiana, but isn't sure if that's true or not. She would be most easily traced with the tracking system your people use."

"Ms Penfolds, how much exactly did Kate tell you?"

"Only what I've told you now. She wasn't the most forthcoming person."

"Would it be possible for one of my agents to come and meet with you?"

"Of course. If there's anything I can do-"

"Yes, Ms Penfolds, there is. Give me your address, and Special Agent Denozo will be with you soon."

"Ms Penfolds? I'm Special Agent Anthony Denozo, NCIS as I'm sure you know. I'm here about Kaitlin Todd?"

"Oh, yes, come in Special Agent Denozo. Is there any news?"

"None that I can tell you, ma'am. What exactly did Kate tell you to say?"

"I have the note she gave me here." Alicia took the two sheets of paper out of her handbag. "She was removing her contact lenses in the bathroom. She looked… nervous, almost as if she thought she was being spied on."

"Nervous?"

"Is there something wrong with that?"

"Kate doesn't get nervous. Let me see that note."

Tony took the paper from Alicia and read through the words. It was Kate's handwriting, he noticed. It just said Gibbs' name and number, and a few bullet points collaborating with what Gibbs had been told. One glance at the sketch and he knew it was her work.

"So this is the man who took her?"

"I'm assuming so. My, I haven't ever seen anyone so agitated in a simple conversation before. I asked her where she was headed and she started looking round, as if she was looking for a bug system or something."

_Probably an escape route,_ Tony decided. The big, bustling woman was the kind of person who could probably talk for three hours without stopping. "I'd love to stop and chat, Ms Penfolds, but of course you understand why I can't do that. Can we just cut to the chase?"

"Oh, certainly. You know, she seemed to think someone was out to get her, and I-"

"Ms Penfolds. Is there anything at all that she said that wasn't in these notes? Anything at all could be a clue on how we can find her."

"Now, let's see. She said the man was wearing a black t-shirt and jeans, and that he wore sunglasses. I remember that specifically because I thought to myself how odd it was for a young man to wear sunglasses in this weather. He was about, let's see now, thirty-five? Yes, that's right. Thirty-five. He'd sent her in to remove her lenses, presumably so she couldn't see where they went. She said they'd been driving for roughly an hour. Give or take a few minutes, of course. May I say, Special Agent Denozo-"

"Tony."

"Tony, yes, may I say-"

"Ms Penfolds, is there any more information you can give me that could be valuable?"

"She mentioned something about lying to a friend. I can't be certain what exactly."

_I wouldn't be surprised if the only voice you listen to is your own,_ Tony refrained from saying. "As I said, I can't wait. Every moment we waste is a moment we could be using to find Kate. If there's nothing else-"

"There isn't," Alicia put in helpfully.

"Then I'll be taking my leave, ma'am, if you don't mind."

Tony had never been in such a hurry to leave a woman's home.

"Aww, Tony, I'm touched."

"You did actually _meet_ the woman, right?"

"Yes, I was more concerned with her saving my life than avoiding her conversation." Kate gave Tony her "innocent" smile. "You don't have to go all 'macho' on me, you know. A woman likes it when a guy _doesn't_."

"Really?"

"You know, for someone who spends such a lot of time around women, you don't know much about us, do you?"

"Cute," Tony said with a smirk. They'd found Kate only the day before, two weeks after her capture. Everyone, including herself, had begun to fear for her life. Her sister had been asking questions and even the President had become concerned that someone who had done him such good service was missing and possibly in terrible danger.

"Admit it, Tony, you missed having me around."

"Look, Kate, I-"

Gibbs walked into the office at that perfect moment, to say, "Kate. Good to have you back." Then he left for the bathroom.

"See? Not hard at all."

"Fine. It wasn't the same."

"Aww, you're so sweet."

"Don't get used to it."

Abby joined them at this point. "Hey guys, what's happening?"

"Tony was just telling me how much he missed me." Kate smirked at him and he glared back.

"Aww, how _sweet_. What did that guy want with you anyway?"

Kate made a face. "Don't ask."

"Shouldn't you be taking it easy?"

"I _hate_ taking it easy. I just want to get back to normal as fast as possible and forget about the whole thing. And I need to talk to _you_."

"I'm going to leave you girls to it," Tony said quickly, deciding that this was one of their famous "girl thing" talks.

"Are you sure you don't want to know? A guy like you, who spends so much time with women and yet still knows so little about us. Don't you want to get in touch with your feminine side?" Kate teased.

Tony left very quickly, leaving Kate and Abby to laugh at him momentarily before turning to a more serious note.

"I lied," Kate said.

"What? When?"

"It's not water. I'm really sorry; I don't know what came over me. It's as if my biggest fear is letting people in. I never told anyone anything beyond my favourite colour before I joined NCIS, and phobias, well it's a massive step. I'm ready to tell you, but you have to promise not to laugh, okay?"

"Sure, you got it." Abby was a little confused as to why Kate hadn't told her the truth in the first place, but wouldn't have said so. She understood that this was a big deal to Kate and she wasn't about to make it even harder. She remembered how she'd felt when she had to tell her about autopsy, despite not yet even knowing her properly. This must be the same, or rather worse, because Kate was such a closed person.

"I'm a huge arachnophobic."

"He wanted to make me… do stuff," Kate confessed that night as the tiny house spider crawled across her hand. She was scared, but under Abby's coaching she turned her hand over and over so as not to drop the spider.

"I'd like to see any guy try," Abby said with a smile, one which quickly faded. "It must have been awful."

"It was. I managed to detain him for a few days, but if Tony and Gibbs hadn't come in when they did, I… I hate to think what might have happened."

"Why did he want you? It can't have been just for _that_."

"Oh, he wanted revenge on Tony for the death of his fiancé a couple of years ago. He figured we were dating. It didn't take long to set him straight, but he'd seen us together so he knew we were friends. When you're that angry with somebody you don't worry about their relationship with the victim. You just do everything you can to make the guy feel what you did."

It was then that Gibbs, Ducky and Tony all came into the office – in the middle of the night, no less.

At their faces, which portrayed their surprise, Kate quickly went to explain. "It's a-"

"Girl thing?"

--

Apologies for the awful ending. Please review! My lovely purple button likes being clicked, and she hasn't in a while so she's feeling a bit down. Please make her all better!

vvvv


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